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Mahindra First Choice Services gets you to service your own car
MUMBAI: Mahindra First Choice Services (MFC Services), a chain of multi-brand car service workshops, and part of the $19 billion Mahindra Group, has launched a unique initiative, A Date with your Car.
This one-of-a-kind experience will give car owners an opportunity to service their cars themselves. The idea behind the initiative is to give customers a hands-on experience of their cars under the guidance of MFCS technicians and to empower them with the information they need when making car-servicing decisions in the future.
Mahindra First Choice Services CEO YVS Vijay Kumar says, “Being a car enthusiast is all about feeling a connection with your car. The aim behind this initiative is to encourage car owners to come and service their cars themselves under MFCS’s guidance. With our skilled technicians, genuine MFC spare parts and state-of-the-art equipment, we are committed to delivering the best car service. This initiative is also an endeavour to educate and empower our customers and is yet another step in our mission to build trust and transparency in the highly fragmented and unorganised car service industry.”
The car owners can come to the workshop on an appointed day and service the car themselves. Throughout the session, trained MFCS crew will be available for consultation and help customers fix their car. Customers will also get access to all the tools and equipment needed for undertaking the service job under MFCS guidance and no labour cost will be charged. This program will only undertake regular and basic work.
To participate in this exclusive appointment-based activity customers can log on to www.mahindrafirstchoiceservices.com for registration.
With over 340 workshops across 24 states, MFC Services is steadily marching towards its vision to be amongst the top three service providers for out of warranty cars by 2018. The company is constantly enhancing the customer experience through digitisation and has launched Carworkz, a car servicing workshop aggregator.
It is also exploring partnerships with insurance companies and fleet operators to increase the inflow of customers into franchisee workshops. It aims to grow its network to 1000 workshops across the country.
The company also provides cashless insurance facility with leading insurance companies and a convenient booking service for customers.
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
